The Clan of Paths

Founded by the Clear-Eyed lord of the Mountain, the Shuhōken are an anomaly in many ways. The duty given to this clan was merely to find the true path and spread it across the Empire. Surely an undertaking, immense as it is, must be possible over generations and hundreds of years. If there is a truest path, the Clan of Paths have not found it. To more quickly find such a truest path, the Shuhōken have promoted certain individualistic ideologies. While the Samurai of the Clan of Paths are in no ways free of Bushidō and the typical chain of command, they are given leeway to pursue their own paths in life that make members of other clans jealous or unsettled. The Bushi of the Clan of Paths tend to specialize in unorthodox styles or unconventional weapons entirely, some eschewing typical Samurai weaponry all together; the Miyabito of this clan have founded a tradition rooted in logic and reason, allowing them to make impossible deductions based on two seemingly unrelated pieces of testimony, much to the bafflement of the rest of the Empire; and their onmyōji have founded their techniques on manipulating the kami within themselves, perhaps in an attempt to better understand their primal influence. Finally, the strangest aspect of the Clan of Paths is their Monks, who, by nature of belonging to the Shuhōken, are indeed Samurai. Any of the Shuhōken are free to join these monks at any time, should they believe their path leads only to a dead end, so they might pursue the clan's duty with an unburdened soul.